<nettime> LINKS: New mailing list / India

[Frederick Noronha <fred@goa1.dot.net.in>]

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DEVELOPMENT / TECHNOLOGY New mailing lists from India

We take pleasure in announcing the recent launch of two new mailing lists,
dealing with development / technology issues from South Asia. If you, or
anyone you know, would like to subscribe to either mailing list, just send
an email to fred@vsnl.com giving a brief self-introduction, and mentioning
on which list you read this note. Thanks, Frederick Noronha, Freelance
Journalist. 

CR-INDIA: This list aims to campaign for the use of community radio as a
means of non-profit, low-cost and pro-development communications in India
and the other countries of South Asia. Radio holds out immense potential
in countries like ours, but for long this medium has either been totally
government-controlled, or opened to only big commercial players.
Non-profit and educational organisations (including universities) could
contribute significantly if they are given permissions to run their own
stations. With the FM frequencies becoming available, thousands of
low-powered frequencies can be opened up across the region. As we learn
from the experiences in nearby Nepal (Radio Sagarmatha, etc) and Sri Lanka
(Kothmale's experiment with radio- browsing, etc) this list is being used
to share appropriate information about how community radio can and is
being used both in South Asia and elsewhere in the globe.

BYTESFORALL: Welcome to South Asia. This talent-rich, resource- poor,
tragic-powerhouse of immense software skills, finds its abilities
recognised across the globe. And yet millions here can't find the
solutions that could make life a little less of a struggle. Likewise,
software brains from the region are serving some of the biggest companies
in the globe... But it also finds itself ironically unable to afford the
prices of 'legal' software that it very badly needs for itself.  Some of
the most relevant software/Internet/computer/IT ventures in South Asia,
ironically, fail to get the attention they merit. Attending to the needs
of the poor doesn't make good business sense. bYtES For aLL is an attempt
to swim against the tide. Through a website <http://www.bytesforall.org>
and an e-mail based mailing list <bytesforall@goacom.com>, we hope to
update interested readers about interesting ventures. Attempts that focus
on people before profits. After being launched in July 1999, this venture
which is based entirely on volunteer participation, currently has its key
supporters based in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and abroad.

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                              The most fundamental way of helping 
                        other people is to teach people how to do 
                        things better, to tell people things that 
                         you know that will enable them to better 
                                  their lives. For people who use 
                        computers, this means sharing the recipes 
                         you use on your computer, in other words 
                               the programs you run.   -- Richard   
                              Stallman, Free Software Foundation.
                    *********************************************
                           Many of the best minds of our time are 
                          engaged in finding ways for the already 
                        wealthy to claim even more of the world's 
                           real wealth for themselves. -- David C 
                                         Korten yes@futurenet.org
                    *********************************************
                              [India, China] and other developing 
                           nations have the chance to rethink the 
                            meaning of being rural. If just a few 
                        political leaders were to reexamine their 
                          telecommunications agenda for the rural 
                          populace, poverty could be redefined in 
                          the digital age. -- Nicholas Nigroponti, 
                                         Director, MIT Media Lab.
                    *********************************************
                        The root of wealth or poverty lies in the 
                        ends we have in mind, not in the means to 
                           those ends.  If the hand is ready then 
                          finding the instrument of action should 
                          not be difficult. --Rabindranath Tagore 
                          (a legendary poet in Bengali literature 
                                    and a Noble laureate of 1913)
                    *********************************************
-- 
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_/ Frederick Noronha | Freelance Journalist | fred@vsnl.com
_/ 784 Saligao 403511 Goa India | Ph 832.409490 or 832.409783
_/
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